SC Picture Project » Bamberg County Photoshttp://www.sciway.net/sc-photos
The purpose of the South Carolina Picture Project is to celebrate the beauty of the Palmetto State while preserving some of its vanishing landscapes.Tue, 03 Mar 2015 17:38:34 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1Edisto Farmshttp://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/bamberg-county/edisto-farms.html
http://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/bamberg-county/edisto-farms.html#commentsWed, 04 Feb 2015 17:15:13 +0000http://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/?p=46816Also known as Guess Farms, this dairy farm in rural Denmark was founded by James Barre Guess, Jr. in the early twentieth century and operated by the Guess family for three generations. The farm raised Guernsey cattle by the Edisto River and was known for its “Golden Guernsey” milk. By the 1930s an Edisto Farms distribution center was operating in Columbia.

Guess was known nationally for his talents at raising cattle and in 1953 was given the Master Farmer Award by the State of South Carolina and in 1958 recognized as one of the country’s outstanding dairymen by the American Guernsey Cattle Club. Edisto Farms was bought out by Coburg Dairy in 1969. (The former dairy farm should not be confused with a goat farm in Ridgeville, also named Edisto Farms.)

Contributor Treva Thomas Hamlin of Rock Hill tells us, “This is the scene that greets visitors as they enter the town of Denmark, South Carolina. The silos stand guard over the former Guess Dairy Farm.”

]]>http://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/bamberg-county/edisto-farms.html/feed/2Jim Harrison Galleryhttp://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/bamberg-county/jim-harrison-gallery.html
http://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/bamberg-county/jim-harrison-gallery.html#commentsMon, 12 Jan 2015 15:38:39 +0000http://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/?p=45635Most renowned artists follow the market and live in large cities where major art buyers can be exposed their work – not so for Denmark native and award-winning painter, Jim Harrison. Harrison, who was educated at Denmark High School and the University of South Carolina, took an unorthodox road to his career that ultimately led him not just back to his hometown but to the very building where he first connected with a paintbrush.

One of America’s foremost artists of rural scenes, Harrison began as an apprentice for sign painter J.J. Cornforth, painting the Coca-Cola logo on local buildings. Harrison’s mother saw potential beyond commercial graphics for her son and purchased an art kit for him to encourage his artistic pursuits. As much as Harrison loved art, however, he saw a future in teaching and coaching and decided to major in physical education in college. Upon graduating from USC, he successfully led three South Carolina high school football teams during his eleven-year stint as a coach, at Bamberg High School, Orangeburg High School, and Elloree High School.

Harrison’s career in education led him to befriend Allendale art teacher Zita Mellon, who inspired him to take his art seriously, not simply as an avocation but as a possible profession. Thanks to Mellon’s influence, the more he painted, the more he felt pulled to pursue art as his life’s work. In fact, the pull was so strong that Harrison turned down an assistant coaching position at Furman University in order to return to Denmark as an artist.

His first foray into the world of professional art was in 1970, when Harrison and his wife, Margaret, traveled to New York City for the fall Greenwich Village sidewalk art show. He sold only one piece during that first show, but undeterred, Harrison kept producing scenes of his home state until his print, “Coastal Dunes,” was published in the 1970s. Following his success as a limited edition print artist, Harrison continued painting and eventually became associated with Hammer Galleries in New York, actually selling out his first show there in advance.

The public was hungry for Harrison’s rural buildings and landscapes – scenes that continue to define southern Americana – and his great fortune during that first show at Hammer was duplicated in subsequent shows there and in San Francisco. Today Harrison creates originals while also selling prints of his timeless beloved classics at the Jim Harrison Gallery in Denmark, situated in the shadow of the town’s iconic water tower (which he also painted) and in the same building where J.J. Cornforth first ignited his passion for art. When he is not greeting art lovers in the gallery, Harrison can be found working in his studio behind it.

]]>http://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/bamberg-county/jim-harrison-gallery.html/feed/1Denmark High Schoolhttp://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/bamberg-county/denmark-high-school.html
http://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/bamberg-county/denmark-high-school.html#commentsFri, 17 Oct 2014 17:49:15 +0000http://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/?p=42948This vacant school in the heart of Denmark served students from its construction in 1920 until 1985. It is widely suspected that the school was designed by renowned architect and Harstville native Charles Coker Wilson, who is responsible for many South Carolina buildings including the State House in Columbia. Wilson designed the former two-story Denmark School that was built in 1908 and once sat next door to this school. No longer extant, the Denmark School served students from grades one through ten before adding an eleventh grade in 1911.

As the student population of Denmark grew in the early twentieth century, the need for a separate high school became pressing. Denmark High School was built to relieve crowding in the Denmark School, and a covered walkway joined the two schools. Denmark High School expanded twice: once in 1932 when a gymnasium, two restrooms, and four classrooms were added, and again 1948 when eight more classrooms and two more restrooms were added. Following the 1948 addition, the school added a twelfth grade. In 1957 the school consolidated with nearby Olar High School and moved to a new building nearby. When the Denmark School was demolished in the 1960s, the former high school was used by the elementary school until 1985 when a new elementary school was built. Denmark High School has remained vacant ever since.

Built in 1920, Denmark High School is an excellent example of Classical Revival educational architecture. The school was significantly enlarged in 1932 and again in 1948 to include a gymnasium and additional classroom space. The original 1920 building, likely the design of Charles Coker Wilson, is laid in five-to-one American bond pattern, contains a soldier course water table and features as its centerpiece a projecting parapet-gabled entrance pavilion with a double-leaf entrance and a two-tiered arched glass transom and archivolt. Denmark High School closely resembles other examples of Wilsons’ schools of the same period that typically feature cupolas, chevron-patterned and glazed color tile friezes, similar floor plans, functional layouts, and architectural treatment like the features of this school. This school also has a hipped roof that is clad in gray slates and features exposed rafter tails. Denmark High served the educational needs of the town of Denmark from 1920 to 1985.

]]>http://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/bamberg-county/denmark-high-school.html/feed/0Copeland Househttp://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/bamberg-county/copeland-house.html
http://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/bamberg-county/copeland-house.html#commentsWed, 16 Apr 2014 19:25:58 +0000http://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/?p=34674This simple farmhouse in the Bamberg County community of Ehrhardt likely was built around 1795 with hewn logs joined by dovetails. The home belonged to Dutch immigrant Jacob Copeland, who established a small farm here and produced crops such as wheat and potatoes and raised livestock.

Prior to the development of the railroad, this rural town in what was then Barnwell County served as a stop along the stagecoach route that traveled the Charleston-to-Augusta Road. Small farms such as Copeland’s were successful due to the traffic from the stagecoach route. By the early nineteenth century, two new rooms had been built on the north and southwest sides of the farmhouse, and by the mid nineteenth century, the front porch was added.

Jacob Copeland’s grandson, also named Jacob, was a Confederate veteran who lost a leg while serving in the Civil War. He returned here in 1864 and managed the farm that his mother, Eve, had maintained after inheriting it from her father. The younger Jacob Copeland also worked as a teacher upon his return from the war. The farm later was left to Jacob’s son George, who lived here until the 1980s.

The Copeland House is significant as an excellent example of a vernacular farm residence built ca. 1795 and for its association with the Copeland Family of Barnwell County (after 1897 Bamberg County), which occupied the house and farmed the property for over one hundred and fifty years. The original core of the Copeland House is a one-story, three-bay, gable roofed log structure with no exterior embellishment. The logs are joined with full dovetails. Two rooms were added in the early nineteenth century, and a porch was added to the east façade in the mid-nineteenth century. Another building campaign in 1907 included a three room, thirty-six foot by fifteen-foot wing and a forty-foot by seven-foot porch attached to the west elevation. The property also includes a frame smokehouse and cane mill shelter that serve as intact examples of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century agricultural buildings. Additionally there is a family cemetery and adjacent slave cemetery on the property. The Copeland house was used as a family residence from the time of its construction until the mid-1980s when Copeland family descendants sold the property.

]]>http://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/bamberg-county/copeland-house.html/feed/0Trinity United Methodisthttp://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/bamberg-county/trinity-united-methodist-2.html
http://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/bamberg-county/trinity-united-methodist-2.html#commentsThu, 27 Mar 2014 14:02:33 +0000http://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/?p=34222Trinity United Methodist Church in Bamberg is the last of three churches to house this congregation, the first built in 1853 when Bamberg was a stagecoach stop called Lowrey’s Turnout. The town was chartered in 1855 and became known as Bamberg, for businessman Major William Seaborn Bamberg, who also donated land for a Methodist church two years earlier.

The original Trinity Methodist was a meeting house built on Church Street where Restland Cemetery now sits. Restland Cemetery is also the burial site of Major Bamberg. A second church was built in 1883 at the current site of the Carter home on Railroad Avenue, where a bridge once stood to take church-goers across the canals flanking the railroad tracks. The present Gothic Revival church was built in 1904, with an addition built in 1970. It sits next to First Baptist Church, and the two congregations participate in a combined Bible study.

Trinity Methodist originally was part of the Charleston circuit along with three other nearby churches. In 1884 the Orangeburg circuit was formed, and Trinity Methodist remains an active member. It is listed in the National Register as part of the Bamberg Historic District, which says the following about the area:

The Bamberg Historic District is a significant collection of around fifty-six contributing buildings from the period 1880-1930 which presents an accurate depiction of the foremost residential neighborhood of Bamberg of this period. The district was home to several locally important citizens. The buildings are of consistent scale, density, massing and setback, with the largest and most prominent buildings along the central section of East Railroad Avenue. The buildings of the district range from one to two-and-one-half stories and are primarily of frame construction. Most of the buildings are vernacular residences or bungalows with prominent porches and profuse carpenter’s ornamentation; a few of the largest and most notable buildings express the more fashionable architectural styles of the era, including Second Empire, Neo-Classical, Queen Anne, Victorian, Romanesque Revival and Gothic Revival. The district also includes a cemetery dating from 1852.

]]>http://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/bamberg-county/trinity-united-methodist-2.html/feed/0First Baptist Churchhttp://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/bamberg-county/first-baptist-church-4.html
http://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/bamberg-county/first-baptist-church-4.html#commentsThu, 27 Mar 2014 13:59:01 +0000http://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/?p=34236This stately Georgian Revival church in Bamberg has been welcoming worshipers with its grand Tuscan columns since it was built in 1928. The church formed, however, in 1872 when 11 residents of the community gathered together and participated in a church service led by two local pastors.

The congregation first met in a small, simple building on West Church Street. In 1894 a larger church was built on the present site to accommodate the growing congregation. That building was demolished nearly 25 years later to make room for the elegant edifice that graces the corner of Railroad Avenue and Carlisle Street today. It sits next to Trinity United Methodist Church, and the two congregations participate in a combined Bible study.

First Baptist Church of Bamberg is listed in the National Register as part of the Bamberg Historic District, which says the following about the area:

The Bamberg Historic District is a significant collection of around fifty-six contributing buildings from the period 1880-1930 which presents an accurate depiction of the foremost residential neighborhood of Bamberg of this period. The district was home to several locally important citizens. The buildings are of consistent scale, density, massing and setback, with the largest and most prominent buildings along the central section of East Railroad Avenue. The buildings of the district range from one to two-and-one-half stories and are primarily of frame construction. Most of the buildings are vernacular residences or bungalows with prominent porches and profuse carpenter’s ornamentation; a few of the largest and most notable buildings express the more fashionable architectural styles of the era, including Second Empire, Neo-Classical, Queen Anne, Victorian, Romanesque Revival and Gothic Revival. The district also includes a cemetery dating from 1852. The buildings are set on landscaped lots with tall trees.

]]>http://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/bamberg-county/first-baptist-church-4.html/feed/0Voorhees Collegehttp://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/bamberg-county/voorhees-college.html
http://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/bamberg-county/voorhees-college.html#commentsFri, 20 Dec 2013 17:02:04 +0000http://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/?p=30380Voorhees College is an accredited four-year liberal arts college in Denmark. The historically black college began as one woman’s vision for black schools in the rural, segregated South. Elizabeth Evelyn Wright, a graduate of Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, was so inspired by Washington and her own education that she made it her mission to open black schools where there were voids.

Wright arrived to Bamberg County in the late nineteenth century and started the Denmark Institutional School in 1897. In 1902 New Jersey philanthropist Ralph Voorhees donated funding towards the school’s first building, and the school officially opened with Wright serving as principal. It was the only black high school in the area. The school needed further funding, however, and in 1924 the Episcopal-affiliated American Church Institutes for Negroes stepped in and offered support. By 1947 the school became the Voorhees School Junior College, it and received its four-year accreditation in 1962.

Today the school is led by Dr. Cleveland Sellers, an activist during the civil rights movement who was injured during the Orangeburg Massacre. The incident galvanized Sellers to become an educator. Dr. Sellers also serves as warden of the college’s St. Philip’s Chapel, built for the school in 1935. Voorhees College maintains a strong relationship with the Episcopal church, and students can attend services on campus, which also welcomes residents of the community.

The Booker T. Washington Building, pictured below, was built as a hospital in 1905. It was designed by a professor from Claflin College, a neighboring black college in Orangeburg, and was built solely by African Americans. Today it serves as an administration building for Voorhees.

Voorhees College was founded in 1897 as Denmark Industrial School by Miss Elizabeth Evelyn Wright. The Voorhees College Historic District is comprised of thirteen contributing buildings built between 1905 and 1935. The district’s significance is derived from its importance as a pioneer in higher education for African Americans in the area and from its association with Elizabeth Wright, teacher, humanitarian and founder of Voorhees. Elizabeth Wright’s determination to establish a school for poor African Americans based on the ideals of her mentor, Booker T. Washington, for whom the 1905 hospital was named, never wavered in the face of anger, distrust and prejudice. Her high ideals inspired those who worked with her as well as her benefactors. In 1923 Voorhees became affiliated with the Protestant Episcopal Church and the American Church Institute for Negroes. Many of the buildings on campus were built by students at the campus. These brick buildings had leaded glass windows, curvilinear gables, dentil moldings, decorative brickwork, and cupolas. The buildings were not simply utilitarian but reflected an admiration for architectural design and a desire to master masonry techniques.

]]>http://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/bamberg-county/voorhees-college.html/feed/0Denmarkhttp://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/bamberg-county/denmark.html
http://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/bamberg-county/denmark.html#commentsWed, 18 Dec 2013 17:59:53 +0000http://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/?p=30289Though the town of Denmark in Bamberg County was not officially established until 1837, founder Zack Graham sold 17 acres to the fledgling South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company in 1830, placing Denmark – or “Graham’s Turnout,” as the area was then known – in a prime position along the new Charleston to Hamburg railway line. The route, beginning in Charleston and ending at Hamburg on the banks of the Savannah River, allowed the 136-mile line to directly compete with boats shipping goods down the river from Augusta to Savannah.

The country’s first steam locomotive, the Best Friend of Charleston, was purchased by South Carolina Canal and Railroad in 1830 and made its first trip on Christmas day of that year. Tragically, the following year the steam locomotive suffered a boiler explosion when the steam valve was closed by an inexperienced fireman, killing him and destroying the steam engine. The locomotive was quickly rebuilt as the Phoenix, and by 1834 the railroad company had 15 locomotives making the trip between the two communities, with several South Carolina hamlets – such as Graham’s Turnout – serving as stops along the way.

In 1837 the town was incorporated as Graham, and the addition of new railroad tracks by another transportation business, the South Bound Railroad Company, led to people moving towards the intersection of the two companies’ tracks. As a result, a new community formed that would be called Denmark for Captain Denmark, an official of the South Bound Railroad. Today the passenger train company Amtrack serves the residents of Denmark and its surrounding communities on its line from Miami, Florida, to New York City.

Denmark is also the home of nationally-known artist Jim Harrison, who maintains his gallery there and designed the dogwood that graces the Denmark water tower. In the photo at the top of the page, Harrison’s iconic Coca-Cola graphic can be seen on the side of his gallery.

]]>http://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/bamberg-county/denmark.html/feed/0Bethel Park United Methodist Churchhttp://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/bamberg-county/bethel-park-united-methodist-church.html
http://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/bamberg-county/bethel-park-united-methodist-church.html#commentsFri, 08 Nov 2013 19:01:21 +0000http://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/?p=28363This congregation in Denmark has roots in a Methodist church formed here in 1858 as part of the Bethel and Graham’s Circuits, later called the Denmark Circuit. Circuits are organizational structures within the denomination that include multiple churches in a given area. By 1908 two Methodist churches – Graham’s Church and Bethel Church – combined to form Bethel Park United Methodist Church. This modern brick church was built to accommodate the new larger congregation.

Photographer Andy Hunter, pastor of First Baptist Church of Denmark, shares the following about Bethel Park United Methodist: “In many ways, Bethel Park United Methodist Church is my church’s sister church in that it is located at the other end of Beech Avenue about a half of a mile away. Another reason we have a special relationship is that many of our members have married over the years so that Bethel Park has many former Baptists, and we have many former Methodists. We also cooperate throughout the year in various worship services and community projects.”

]]>http://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/bamberg-county/bethel-park-united-methodist-church.html/feed/0Salem Methodist Churchhttp://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/bamberg-county/salem-methodist-church.html
http://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/bamberg-county/salem-methodist-church.html#commentsTue, 11 Dec 2012 18:57:41 +0000http://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/?p=17218The Salem Methodist Church can be found near the small town of Hilda in Bamberg County. Long ago this beautiful church taught and nurtured a boy named Holland McTyeire who went on to become a Methodist bishop. In 1873 he founded a small college in Nashville that eventually became Vanderbilt University!